Mora

A giant of Guyana’s riverside forests – mora forms whole stands in which almost no other tree grows.

Mora excelsa is a mighty tree of the legume family growing to 40–50 m, with prominent plank buttresses at the base of its trunk. It grows on seasonally flooded banks of rivers and streams, where it forms almost single-species forests – a rarity in the tropics, where trees of many species usually grow side by side. It has enormous seeds, among the largest of any dicot, which float on water and germinate in the shade of old trees. Its heavy, hard wood is used in construction, for railway sleepers and in boatbuilding.

Significance in the country

Mora forests line the banks of many of Guyana’s rivers and are one of the country’s main forest types; mora is also one of the most important species for Guyana’s timber industry.

Where it grows

On the floodplain banks of rivers in northern and central Guyana – in the basins of the Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice and the rivers of the north-western Barima-Waini region.

More: Wikipedia (en)